Lillehammer: Maren Lundby wins season opening qualification

On Friday night, on the mythical Olympic stadium, the windy conditions turned to a smoother weather to let the new season begin. With 55 ladies out of 17 nations on start, the nineth Women's World Cup season started off on the HS140 Lysgardsbakken in Lillehammer.

Maren Lundby won this winter's first qualification on home snow in Norway. The winner of the two last World Cups in a row made the longest jump with 138.5 m and 149.8 points. Before her, Chiara Hoelzl (AUT) was claiming the leaderboard with 127 m (145.9 points). Slovenia was quite strong taking third position with KIinec Ema ahead of her team mate Nika Kriznar and Ursa Botataj (eighth).

Japanese Sara Takanashi, last summer Grand Prix winner, finished fifth. Norway and Austria took nine out of ten top places. Local heroes Silje Opseth and Anna Odine Stroem finished sixth and nineth whereas Chiara‘s team mate Eva Pinkelnig finished seventh. One of the happiest women of the day was French Julia Clair, who jumped an unexpected 125 m, her best jump since she was injured more than a year ago.

Austrian Marita Kramer, the winner of summer Continental Cup series did surprisingly good already in trainings and she finished qualification in twelve.

US American Tara Geraghty-Moats lost balance right after take off and crashed into the landing area. Fortunately, she did not suffer any serious injuries.

No doubt that this new season will be exciting. This season's first individual event starts on Saturday at 11.45 am CET.